This album is the debut effort of Swedish quintet Waning. On crew, you'll find members of Relic, Stykkmord, and Obitus, amongst others.

With two guitar players on board, you know you're in for something good! No keyboards, and minimalist electronics were involved in the recording of Population Control . Some voice samplings and industrial sounds are the elements found on "Shades of Grey". Then, on the title track, some female spoken vocals can be heard. That's it! Their take on Black Metal is pretty simple and direct. Mostly writing longer (7-9 minutes) compositions, the Swedes have recorded eight tunes of intense and melodic darkness. I was pretty glad to hear Waning resorting also on moderate paces, and this in frequent occasions. The duo of guitar players is forming a solid wall of sound, where muscular riffs meet distorted arpeggios and cool tremolo picking, while discrete clean melodic work makes ghostly appearances. "Left to Hate", is a great track where most of the good stuff mentioned is present. Later on track #6, actually the title track, the bone-crushing riffs and distorted arpeggios form an infernal duo, not to forget the clean guitar work accountable for the harmonious edge. This last one also shows a bit of a progressive touch. That same guitar ensemble takes a dissonant turn in the following song simply called "Hollow", with some interesting results.

Although not a masterpiece, Population Control is a good and solid Swedish Black Metal disc.